Tricycle Blog

From the New York Times. 50 or 60 monks arrested. Dead bodies all around Lhasa.
The government response to the Burmese protests was such a black eye for China, it is astounding they would raise the ire of the world again by firing on peaceful demonstrators themselves. Is it arrogance, or fear that motivates them?
This should lead to many condemnations and Olympic boycotts. The world has so little leverage over China otherwise, and the games are so important to Beijing
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The International Campaign for Tibet condemns the Chinese government's excessive use of force against a peaceful demonstration, while the Chinese government news agency Xinhua says the Dalai Lama clique is responsible for causing unrest and damaging property.
Meanwhile, in a piece of bitter irony, The Buddhist Blog notes the U.S. has removed China from its list of worst human rights offenders.
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The BBC has good coverage of this ongoing crisis. Here are the headlines:
Deaths Reported in Tibet Protests (an "unspecified number" of dead)
Eyewitness accounts: Tibet clashes
Tibet poses dilemma for Beijing (especially with the summer Olympics approaching)
Eyewitness: Monk 'Kicked to the Floor'
Chinese Media Silent on Tibet (so the rest of us shouldn't be)
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Trouble has been brewing in Lhasa since Monday:
Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. Witnesses say the protesters burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.
The chaotic scene marked the most violent demonstrations since protests by Buddhist monks began in Lhasa on Monday, the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
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The Chinese embassy in Israel seems to have put pressure on Tel Aviv University to remove a Falun Gong flyer. Some students and faculty were appropriately outraged.
An article on meditation myths. One myth?
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The second day of protests in Tibet: Out comes the teargas. And still no permission for Tibetans to march from India. And Chinese police in Kathmandu observe Tibetan demonstrators, manipulate the local police, and try to get American journalists arrested.
The latest "eco-friendly" product to get a black eye: solar panels. The never-ending quest for capital brings more poison to China.
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Is the U.N.'s Burma effort running out of steam? It doesn't seem like it ever had much. And sanctions haven't bothered the junta either.
Blood rubies: Who's buying Burma's gems?
Monks and some citizens staged a bold protest in Lhasa to celebrate Uprising Day. But Tibetan protesters in Greece (where the Olympic torch is lit) were blocked by police, and will face similar treatment in India.
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[Now with two updates! And one amended comment (#2.)]
Ibrahim Gambari's latest visit to Burma is over without achieving conclusive results other than meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi twice. Burma said No thanks to having U.N. or international oversight for its May constitutional referendum. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines, stepped up and criticized the junta on this.
Thailand's problems in its restive south with insurgent Muslims have left 3,000 dead in four years of conflict. To confront this issue, senior Buddhist monks arrived in Cairo to speak with Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the leading Sunni Muslim in Egypt, on the issue.
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The Tricycle pilgrimage to India was an eventful one, with so many sites visited we were all a bit winded by the end of it. This year, our unflappable Indian guide, Shantum Seth, took us down to the stone-temple caves of Ajanta and Ellora--truly spectacular.
Stephen Batchelor and Shantum led mediations and teachings, and most memorable for me--after Ajanta and Ellora--was our visit to Sanchi, in Madhaya Pradesh. Sanchi is the site of some of the most well-preserved stupas and examples of Buddhist architecture. Stone structures spanning centuries are perched high on a hill overlooking the plains below. The great thing about Sanchi is that it spans a period from the third to the twelfth centuries. The earliest structures show no representation of the Buddha at all, in keeping with the tradition's focus on the teachings, not the man.
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An article on dalit oppression in India from the Washington Post, via Going for Refuge.
Not so long ago, in the back of a tin-roofed restaurant, Ramu, a teenage dishwasher, spent his nights chained to a radiator. That's how his employer kept him from running away.
Ramu wanted to flee because his boss, who was from a higher, more privileged caste, constantly berated him for showing an interest in learning to read. The boss believed Ramu had to get used to a life of cleaning up after other people because as a Dalit, a member of India's lowest and most shunned caste, he could never amount to anything.
Then a foreigner who ran a private school and home for Dalit children noticed Ramu. He enrolled him in classes.
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Two-part movie of a dai-sesshin at Bodhi Manda in New Mexico with Joshu Sasaki Roshi, the last of the O.G. Japanese Zen "missionaries" to America. (See A Century of Zen, about his hundredth birthday.)
The film is by Tom Davenport, who writes:
I will be taking this film off revver.com in a few days. This is a draft version -- there some mistakes -- Bodhi Manda is a "Zen Center" -- not a monastery. The Roshi leads about 18 seven days sesshins a year, not 30, but still an impressive number! Also delivery of the narration and camera moves on the still pictures can be improved.
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Burmese monks strike back at the junta's proposed constitution.
Buddhist monks in Mandalay in upper Burma on Monday launched a harshly worded poster campaign urging a “Vote No” against the government’s referendum on a draft constitution, said sources close to the campaign.
Meanwhile, the All Burma Monks Alliance earlier issued a hard-hitting statement ridiculing the referendum, the election and the regime.
Teams of volunteers have put up anti-regime posters in Amarapura Township in Mandalay, a monk who asked not to be identified told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
“The posters say the current situation is more important than ‘a fire on your head,’” he said. “If your head is on fire, only you will die. If you endorse the constitution, the next generation will also die.”
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Burmese monks taking refuge in Thailand wait, and hope for the best.
More on the Thai monks networking online, including some -- to cynical Western ears -- fairly mild quotes:
One user who called himself "Monk Chat" sent a message to a woman that said "(I) miss you," reported Thai Rath, Thailand's top-selling newspaper.
Bhutan prepares to join the wonderful world of participatory democracy, with all that that implies (including a primary season that may last right up to the convention!)
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Another great post by Danny Fisher on The Buddhist Scholars Information Network (H-Buddhism)'s take on the Pew Study. Check it out, it's a great piece of work, and points out some major failings of the study as it relates to Buddhists.
Please read some of the Samadhi Sutta in l33tspeak on the Level 8th Buddhist. This is the best synthesis of Buddhism and the web in a long time!
And The Worst Horse points out that the rumors of Paris Hilton being spotted with a Buddhist monk were greatly exaggerated (deliberately.)
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[Author’s note: I have written this in celebration of the inner animal spirit shared by humans and non-humans alike. It is a spirit that shouldn’t and perhaps can’t be subdued. It might be what Zen Master Chao-chou had in mind when upon being questioned as to how one might rid oneself of passion, he replied “Why get rid of it!”]
She was always a potential runaway. You needed to keep that in mind. If you didn’t she could bolt and be gone before you could do anything to stop her. She was a big horse. She could hit a full gallop in the space of a few yards, the bit in her teeth, her neck stretched taut, nostrils flared, her powerful legs pumping her forward without direction or intent. Once started, nothing but her own exhaustion ever stopped her.
At times I could smell a runaway coming, feel the heat of it in the palms of my hands as though they were held over a flame. I would take up the reins, drawing in the slack ever so lightly, and tell her “Whoa now, Smokey. Easy now.
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